Former President Bill Clinton warns that President Barack Obama could look like a “wuss” — and even worse — on Syria if he doesn’t do more on the crisis. John Avlon:
In sharp remarks directed against his Democratic successor and his wife’s former boss, President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that President Barack Obama risks looking like a “wuss,” a “fool,” and “lame” for not doing more to influence events in Syria.
Clinton, speaking with Sen. John McCain Tuesday night in a closed press event sponsored by the McCain Institute, contrasted Obama’s inaction in Syria to his own action in the 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo, which included the bombing of the forces of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Clinton said a president must look beyond public and Congressional reluctance to military intervention for the sake of national security and to save lives.
“You just think how lame you’d be… suppose I had let a million people, two million people be refugees out of Kosovo, a couple hundred thousand people die, and they say, ‘You could have stopped this by dropping a few bombs. Why didn’t you do it?’ And I say, ‘because the House of Representatives voted 75% against it?’” Clinton said. “You look like a total wuss, and you would be.”
Responding to a question from McCain about how he views Obama’s Syria policy, Clinton said that any president who avoids a military intervention in order to satisfy short term political objectives would come to regret it in the end.
“If you refuse to act and you cause a calamity, the one thing you cannot say when all the eggs have been broken is, ‘Oh my god, two years ago there was a poll that said 80 percent of you were against it.’ You look like a total fool,” Clinton said.
The event was closed to the press but a recording of portions of Clinton’s remarks were obtained by The Daily Beast. Clinton’s remarks were first reported by Politico.
The only thing unusual about this report in 21st century America is that it didn’t appear in Mother Jones, which has carved out a role in stenography style journalism. Why didn’t they get this tape, too? This underscores how when politicians now think they’re going off the record or speaking to closed rooms, they may be deluding themselves.
But the bigger issue is the thorny one of how to respond to the Syria crisis so that thoughtful restraint is not seen as or actually represents political and policy immobilization. More from Avlon:
President Clinton noted the regime’s gains and the heavy involvement of Russia and Iran in the conflict as another reason that the U.S. cannot afford to sit on the sidelines.
“Some people say, ‘See what a mess it is. Stay out.’ I think that’s a bad mistake. I agree with you about this,” he told McCain. “Sometimes it’s just best to get caught trying, as long as you don’t over commit.”
“The only question is, now that the Russians and the Iranians and Hezbollah are in there head over heels, 90 miles to nothing, should we try to do something to slow their gains and rebalance the power so these rebel groups have a decent chance, if they are supported by the American people, to prevail,” he said.
Americans are war weary and feel bitter about the Bush administration’s interventions abroad, Clinton said. But the Obama administration must do more to make sure that people in countries going through the tumult of the Arab Spring are giving “the strongest incentives possible” to steer their countries toward democratic principles and systems governed by majority rule and minority rights.
“That could all be thrown away if this thing in Syria goes wrong. So my view is that we shouldn’t over learn the lessons of the past. I don’t think Syria is necessarily Iraq or Afghanistan. No one has asked us to send any soldiers in there,” he said.
He compared Syria to Afghanistan when that country was fighting the Soviet Union in the 1980s. American help to the Afghans at that time yielded great benefits for the U.S. in the eyes of the Afghan people. Unfortunately, the U.S. didn’t follow up by supporting Afghanistan and Americans shouldn’t think interventions are quick or easy, he said.
“So if we do something in Syria and it works, it still won’t be done.”
There’s more so go to the link and read the rest.
It’s important to note that Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton did NOT NOT NOT rpt N-O-T always see eye to eye with then Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 primary campaign. They tended to take a harder, more traditional line.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.